Martha Kennedy (c.1755- ), a pinheader, Sarah Taylor, and Mary Mitchcraft were found guilty on 2 April 1787 at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, of assaulting a man and stealing 17 shillings 6 pence. Sentenced to 7 years transportation the women arrived in Sydney aboard the Prince of Wales in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.
Kennedy married Richard Middleton on 17 February 1788; they had two children. Widowed by 1799, she married William Blakemore on 26 May 1799. In 1806 she was recorded as having an illegitimate daughter and still living with Blakemore. Following Blakemore's death in 1811 she married William Day on 20 November 1811. The couple lived at Liverpool. They were still living at Liverpool in 1825. No further records have been found for Martha.
* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 204-05
'Day, Martha (c. 1755–?)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/day-martha-30424/text37728, accessed 5 December 2023.
Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.
Crime: assault and robbery
Sentence: 7 years